Lacrosse sticks, and specifically the head, were originally made of wood or laminated wood which were, in turn, generally hook-shaped. See for example, British Pat. No. 424,742; U.S. Pat. Nos. 2,039,138, 2,508,519, 2,596,894, 3,473,806, 3,591,178 and 3,702,702. These included various type stops or stop guards extending across the lower portion of the head to retain the ball therein. Often the stops were in the form of stringing or a flat piece of material.
Lacrosse sticks next had closed head portions and were often made of synthetic material. See, for example, U.S. Pat. Nos. 2,142,527, 2,369,145, 3,507,495, 3,822,062, 3,905,088, 3,910,578, 4,022,477, 4,034,984, 4,049,273, 4,037,841 and U.S. Design Patent Nos. 207,322 and 236,737. The stops in these later patents ultimately utilized an adhesively secured relatively soft, resilient, open pore foam material to cushion the bottom of the stop which was made of a hard molded plastic. This type of cushioning is illustrated a number of the cited references.
A disadvantage of the cushioning material in the stop was the fact that the open pore material wore quite rapidly, and the material readily became disconnected from the rigid lacrosse stick head. Further, since the prior art cushions were predominantly flat pieces of foam placed against a rounded bottom of the stop, there was little cushioning action.
The commercial prior art heads also normally have two holes in the bottom of the head above the throat for adjusting the vertical laces. Thus, it is difficult to adjust the size and configuration of the pocket.